CLEANUP AWAITS BASE READIES YARD PROJECT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - A tentlike structure on rails is going up next to a dormitory in preparation for excavation work on four filled-in trenches that were part of a World War II chemical warfare storage yard.

In what will be the most visible of several cleanup efforts on the base, the mobile containment building is part of a $6.3 million to $8.4 million effort to remove about 4,000 cubic yards of soil and debris buried in the trenches.

Base officials do not know what is buried in the trenches. It is suspected they were used to dispose of empty containers and unusable or unneeded chemicals.

Preparation of the site should be complete by mid-June. The excavation work is expected to take about four to five months, said Rebecca Hobbs, the project manager.

The Air Force is planning to haul the debris to a disposal site inside the base's precision impact range area, a range used for weapons testing. The proposed disposal site was used for disposing of targets.

``It was previously used for waste containment in the '50s,'' Hobbs said. ``It's comparable for what we have now.''

If any hazardous materials are found, they will be turned over to the U.S. Army Technical Escort Unit. The unit handles chemical and biological warfare materials for the Defense Department.

The unit would first transfer the material to a secured interim facility on base. The material would later be sent to the appropriate disposal facility, officials said.

A key element of the excavation project is the 80-foot by 50-foot containment building that will be moved on rails along the path of the excavation work. The building will be moved a total of about 11 times during the project.

Using fans and an air filtration system, the containment building will be kept under negative pressure to keep any possible contaminants from escaping.

A mobile office trailer will be located at the site to serve as an information center. The information center will have a video monitoring system that will be used by the contractor conducting the cleanup and will be available for base workers wanting to see the work in progress.

The 1.6-acre site was used as part of a chemical warfare material storage yard that was operated in the 1940s.

The trenches were 150 to 160 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10 feet deep. They are spaced about 35 feet apart.

One end of the trenches is within a few feet of a $10.6 million, 136-person dormitory that opened in 1998. The trenches are also within walking distance of where 800 airmen live, officials said.

The storage yard was closed in September 1946. There are no records of materials being removed from the site. A memo issued by the commanding officer at the time indicated that the chemical warfare section was short-handed in the effort to destroy all excess chemicals on hand.

``This lack of personnel at the end of the war suggests that proper procedures may not always have been followed in destroying the chemicals,'' according to an engineering evaluation and cost analysis prepared for the excavation project. Records show that mustard gas, a chemical agent called lewisite and tear gas were sent to Edwards during the years the yard was in operation.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Workers erect a containment structure that will move on rails during excavation of a 1940s era waste site.

Jim Skeen/Daily News

(2 -- color) An Air Force graphic shows the area around the planned waste site cleanup.